One year after The Economist signalled an ”unwelcomed coal renaissance”, Bloomberg News reported Jan. 6 that Europe’s lust for lower energy prices was reviving lignite mining for coal-fired generation in a big way.

Ontario made a small splash in the financial world at the end of October when Premier Kathleen Wynne and two top cabinet ministers announced the province was set to become the first Canadian jurisdiction to issue “green bonds,” . . . → Read More: the reeves report: Ontario to roll out Green Bonds in 2014

18 U.S. Senators have withdrawn their support for the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) due to an overwhelmingly negative online reaction, including a Google petition that garnered over 4.5M signatures and the Wikipedia-led blackout of over 7,000 popular websites.

For most of the past winter, Germany’s 1.1 million solar power systems that crisscross the country have sat relatively idle. Overcast skies and a relative lack of sunshine has meant the powerful solar-generating system has produced little energy, forcing Germany to import electricity from nuclear power plants in neighbouring France . . . → Read More: the reeves report: Saving Solar Power in Germany

The Energy Act 2011 was granted royal assent in the United Kingdom on October 18, a move that will pave the way for the Green Deal to come into effect within the year. Under the plan, households will be encouraged to install energy- and cost-saving efficiencies to their homes without having to bear the full … Continue reading » . . . → Read More: the reeves report: UK ‘Green Deal’ set for launch next Autumn

Earlier this afternoon, The Onion, a satirical news organization, tweeted “BREAKING: Witnesses reporting screams and gunfire heard inside Capitol building.” The initial reaction from The Onion’s followers was trepidation, at best. The Onion is known as a satirical source of “news” that most know to take with a grain of salt. But what if they … Continue reading » . . . → Read More: the reeves report: The Onion takes aim at dysfunctional US Congress

Earlier this week, the non-partisan (but left-leaning) Rideau Institute released a report on Canada’s defence spending since 9/11 entitled The Cost of 9/11 and the Creation of a National Security Establishment. It was written by economist David Macdonald, and it calculated that $92B ($69B adjusted for inflation) has been spent on ‘security’ in various forms … Continue reading » . . . → Read More: the reeves report: Feel Safer Post-9/11? Feel $92B Safer?